The text of the latest statement from the Department of Education to Primary Schools:Dear Principal,Thank you for your continued participation and engagement in the POD project. As you know both schools and the Department have received a number of comments and queries on certain aspects of the operation of POD.

Text of today's message:Dear Principal,Thank you all for your continued participation and engagement in the POD project. Please note that the Department is committed to taking on board feedback from schools and parents about POD. In light of this please be aware of the following changes that will be released on POD on 4th March 2015 at 10.

2nd March 2015 Mr Simon McGarr Re: FOI request 2015/45 I refer to the request which you made under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 for records held by this body: ‘I wish to make a request under the Freedom of Information Acts (as amended) for copies of any and all documents including but not limited to observations, letters, emails and/or submissions whether held in paper, electronic or ..

Please join [countentries formid=1] other parents and families in writing to the Minister for Education to protect every school-aged child's right to privacy and future identity security. Tell Minister O’Sullivan that the Department of Education's plans for the new Primary Online Database (POD) should be scrapped.

I recently found myself rummaging in the online records of the National Digital Research centre. This body is a workplace neighbour of mine, and describes itself like so; NDRC is an independent enterprise dedicated to accelerating research from idea to income. Which description left me nearly none the wiser.

I'm in Kilkenny today, at Podcamp Ireland. It is a very diverse group of people- more demographically spread than any other gathering I've been to. I was talking about using the PaperRound methodology to teach media literacy, and broader critical thinking, to, mostly, Transition Year Students.

Ireland has a perennial problem convincing young people that doing science, maths, engineering and physics is a good career choice. I won't argue with the numbers. John Collins in The Irish Times asserted last Friday;DESPITE RECENT increases in the unemployment rate, an estimated 7,000 vacancies remain unfilled in the technology sector while average salaries are continuing to increase.

Having beeen informed by the time-honoured method of Facebook Invite of its approach, I am looking forward to trying to make some (though not all) of the Conference on Youth, Media and Democracy on the 18th and 19th April next in the DIT School of Media in Aungier Street.